Contact Information:
Jeff Scholes
Linkage, Inc.
781.402.5558
press@linkageinc.com
www.linkageinc.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Global Human Resources Event names 10 Companies "Best-in-Class"

TORONTO, CANADA, AND BOSTON, MASS. (January 17, 2003) - HR.com™, the largest Web destination in North America for HR experts, and Linkage, Inc., a leading provider of organizational development and corporate education programs, products, and services, today announce the winners of the 2002 Human Resources Masters Awards during the first annual HR Masters Symposium in Palm Desert, California held on December 8-11, 2002. Among the ten award categories were outsourcing, HR technology, outplacement, portals, e-learning, talent management, leadership, mergers & acquisitions, global executive coaching and enterprise incentive management. The award recipients demonstrated superior and innovative work in the field of HR, within a specific area of the human capital space.

"I am delighted to be part of a program that formally recognizes the leaders in Human Resource Development. These awards serve to honor those that are exceeding in the field and inspire those who are looking to achieve organizational excellence," said Phil Harkins, CEO of Linkage, Inc.

"This is the first year for the HR Masters Symposium and we are proud to honor and present the industry innovators and leaders with the first ever HR Masters Awards. The HR Masters Symposium Selection Committee identified those companies and products that provided exceptional value to the HR community", added Debbie McGrath, CEO of HR.com. "The HR Masters Awards were handed out on the evening of December 10 and represent the best-in-class products and services as well as thought leadership in the field of HR. Congratulations to all the Award recipients!"

The award winners and categories are as follows:

Cingular Wireless for Outsourcing, sponsored by Fidelity Investments
Cingular Wireless partnered with Fidelity to coordinate all communications for benefits and payroll events. The Cingular-Fidelity teams worked closely together to maintain focus and work through significant company startup challenges. They were awarded a HR Masters Award for their continuous dedication and effort in leveraging the wide range of functionality in their outsourcing system, thereby reducing paperwork and delivering world-class benefits to their populations.

Dow Chemicals for HR Technology, sponsored by SAP
SAP formally presented Dow Chemicals for their outstanding use of a talent management system (delivered by Recruitsoft) as well as their innovative use of technology in streamlining the benefit procurement process (delivered by IE Engine) contributed to Dow receiving this award. Dow was awarded a HR Masters Award for their outstanding achievements in becoming one of the most efficient companies in human asset management.

Corning for Outplacement, sponsored by DBM
Corning implemented Talent 2 Talent as its recruiting function. This in-house career transition service, which costs substantially less than an outside service, is able to provide better quality care to its impacted employees. Corning was awarded a HR Masters Award for their many innovations in making its Recruiting Center of Excellence the new benchmark for HR policies and practices.

General Motors for Portals
GM implemented its enterprise portal mySocrates.com, in partnership with Workscape, delivering leading-edge corporate communications via innovative tools and technologies to hundreds of thousands of employees and retirees. This initiative realized a significant reduction in labor costs associated with internal processes and workflow, as well as increased compliance with GM policies. They were awarded a HR Masters Award for serving as the catalyst for process standardization and simplification, as well as being one of the largest portal implementations ever installed.

Fidelity for eLearning
Fidelity has taken their eLearning platform to levels above and beyond the normal call of duty. The Click2learn Aspen platform is used to provide training world wide for internal staff, third party partners as well as clients of the HR outsourcing business. Fidelity was awarded a HR Masters Award for exemplary work in the eLearning space.

Gateway for Talent Management
To improve their ability to attract and retain talented employees, Gateway built and implemented an innovative employee-driven career development program for all levels within the organization. This user-friendly web-based program integrates managers as partners in strategically developing talent for future organizational needs. They were awarded a HR Masters Award for their outstanding company-wide career development process.

McKesson for Leadership
After suffering from more than a 20 percent employee turnover rate, McKesson launched "LEAD the Way", in partnership with DDI, in January 2001, resulting in a significant decrease in employee turnover and increasing employee satisfaction and employee referral rates. McKesson was awarded a HR Masters Award for their leadership development action, resulting in their highly effective, high-impact program for their leaders.

Adecco for Mergers & Acquisitions
For its savvy IT personnel and business-operation partnerships, Adecco was awarded a HR Masters Award for remarkably completing five highly successful mergers and acquisitions. Adecco represents one of the few staffing firms in the world that leverages technology with its integration of the interim acquisition. This coupled with a strong leadership capability has made the majority of their acquisitions highly successful.

International Truck and Engine Corp. for Global Executive Coaching
Mr. Tim Foley, manager of organizational development at International Truck and Engine Corp., and his team are recognized as the catalyst for developing and providing advanced leadership education, in partnership with Senn-Delaney Leadership, that addresses the true leverage point in changing culture-awareness of how state of mind affects behaviors and results. They were awarded a HR Masters Award for their Health High Performance approach to global executive coaching.

Payless Shoes for Enterprise Incentive Management
Payless Shoes was awarded a HR Masters Award for developing and implementing a new compensation plan-eliminating internal competition and increasing associate participation. Associates are more focused and better informed regarding their incentive earnings potential than ever in the past.

The HR Masters Awards will be handed out once again at the 2003 HR Masters Symposium scheduled on October 26-29, 2003 at the Marriott Desert Springs Resort and Spa.

About Linkage, Inc.
Linkage, Inc. is a global organizational development company that specializes in leadership development. Serving the public and private sectors, the Company provides clients around the globe with customized leadership development and strategic change solutions that include and integrate consulting, training, assessment, coaching, and benchmark research. With a relentless commitment to learning, Linkage also offers a full range of conferences, institutes, summits, public workshops, and distance learning programs on leading-edge topics in leadership, management, HR, and OD. More than 100,000 leaders and managers have attended such a Linkage program since the Company's founding in 1988. Linkage is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, with regional offices in Minneapolis, Atlanta, San Francisco, London, Brussels, and Singapore. On two occasions, Linkage has been named to the Inc. 500, a list of the fastest growing private companies in the United States.